[SOLVED] Help choosing a cheap CPU cooler (pictures) for AM3 upgrade

[GabeBB]

Hey all, I'm about to upgrade an old AM3 PC. Don't want to spend too much money on it. Will probably be adding an Athlon x4 and 750 to it. I'm also considering a new CPU cooler. Saw these two on eBay for 10-$15. But I'm kind of stuck on the shape. Which shape is better? One seems lower profile/horizontal. I'm planning on a mini tower (computer is mATX). Is one of these better in terms of cooling? Is being upright better than horizontal? and does having 2 fans instead of one make a big difference? Should I look for something with more heatpipes? Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[quicc]

Buy the one with the two fans, not because of the double fans just when the AIO stands up like that it lets you have more room for adding ram and stuff. Plus the one facing down might block ram or something.

 

[clutchc]

+1^
If those are your best choices, go for the vertical (tower) model. Does it state a wattage (TDP) for the cooler? Which motherboard do you have? The Athlon X4 (750?) was a FM2 CPU. Or did you mean an Athlon II X4?

 

[GabeBB]

Thanks guys, it is AM3 I just forgot to say Athlon ii X4. I'm looking at the 620e and pairing it with a GTX 750 or similar GPU. My motherboard is just too basic to get a full power CPU. I'm also considering the Athlon ii X2 280. Would 4 cores be better or 2 faster cores? I'm pretty much using the PC to watch movies and play Roblox and other low end games with my children.

https://www.game-debate.com/motherb...89&motherboard=eMachines EL1352-07E Mainboard

 

[clutchc]

The Athlon II X4 620e is a very slow (2.6GHz) quad core from yesteryear. It is only a 45W CPU. Doesn't take much cooling.

But your eMachines EL1352-07E Mainboard use a proprietary cooler mounting affair that doesn't allow use of retail coolers like the ones you listed. What is wrong with the old cooler?

Btw, if you are planning on putting that board in a retail case, you might run into problems with proprietary headers that won't match the cabling from the retail case's front panel area.

 

[GabeBB]

Oh I didn't know this motherboard doesn't take retail coolers. That's too bad. I was just thinking about getting a more powerful cooler in case the new CPU needs it, mainly to overclock it. The old cooler is very noisy too. Was hoping to add a more silent one for under $10.

 

[GabeBB]

Would something like this help to affix a retail cooler? If so maybe could get a 212 evo.

 

[clutchc]

No, The proprietary board uses a different hole pattern than the standard AMD retention bracket can use. You're stuck with the proprietary cooler as a result, I'm afraid.
To be honest, there isn't much sense trying to make a gaming PC using that board.
It is limited to only 4GB of system memory.
It won't swap to a retail case.
The CPUs it supports are very limited in capability.

What CPU do you have in it now?

 

[GabeBB]

Oh OK. I saw that adapter thingy and thought maybe it would help. Yeah I'm not really trying to make like a primary gaming rig. I have a 6600k gaming build. Just want to extend its useful life a bit. I bought an Athlon ii x4 635 and 250 GPU both for $30 so it'll at least be able to handle some of the retro games I have like Unreal Tournament, old Tomb Raider.

This might be interesting to anyone with the same Emachines. There's a Youtubber that's upgraded his a lot:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqB27UtBlCk

Claims it can take 16GB of ram despite the official limit. I don't know whether I'll buy more ram for mine but might be worth to try.

 

[clutchc]

emachines sold several variations of the EL1352. Yours happens to be the 07E. Some of the others may support more memory, yours may not. But take a chance if you want to. Might be surprised.

It is odd that a board from that era would only support 4GB of RAM.

 

[GabeBB]

emachines sold several variations of the EL1352. Yours happens to be the 07E. Some of the others may support more memory, yours may not. But take a chance if you want to. Might be surprised.

It is odd that a board from that era would only support 4GB of RAM.

Yeah it is odd that it's listed as not even supporting 8GB ram. If I do end up buying ram for it and it works I'll update this thread so other folks with this machine can find it, but for now I'm pretty happy with the r7 250 since this integrated graphics it has aren't even good for browser gaming xD